I'd love to get Middleton on the Rockets.

And in today's Western Confrence update...IT JUST KEEPS GETTING TOUGHER.

Normal year no one would touch Chris Paul's contract, but with the warriors in flux for at least one year you might see some spending to go all in on trying to win a ship this year

Kevin O'Connor/The Ringer:

The Rockets recently explored trading Chris Paul into New York's cap space, but the Knicks refused, according to league sources. Trading Paul would have positioned the Rockets to be a Clint Capela or Eric Gordon trade away from freeing up the cap space to sign Jimmy Butler, who league sources say they plan to pursue.

I've seen some salary cap gurus on twitter try to explain how we don't necessarily need cap space to sign Butler. Not sure how that works.

I think this means we will get at least one sweet throwback

I met with Nike two years ago and told them they needed to do the Ketchup/ Mustard for their Coty Edition jerseys after they showed me the Asian City Edition mock ups.

Hopefully they listened.

ESPN confirms CP3 is in the new Space Jam 2 movie with LeBron and AD. Filming in LA is this offseason.

When Paul came to Rockets, everybody knew it was about a 2-year window to win a title before Paul's age, abrasive personality, and mega contract started to probably be a weight that was more than it was worth. So here they now are.

My bad - I saw barstool tweet about it and I assumed that he was. Regardless, that doesn't change the point that The media is looking for anything they can to add fuel to this manufactured narrative that everything is falling apart that they run with a story claiming Harden left practice multiple times in tears because Paul is making fun of his manboobs. It's incredible

CreedBratton said:

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Pumpkinhead said:

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When Paul came to Rockets, everybody knew it was about a 2-year window to win a title before Paul's age, abrasive personality, and mega contract started to probably be a weight that was more than it was worth. So here they now are.

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Except none of what the media is reporting is true. I mean Christ, earlier Skip Bayless was citing Barry from Barstool as a legit source when Barry jokingly tweeted that CP3 made James Harden cry multiple times in practice for making fun of his manboobs. And Skip took that as absolute truth and ****ing rambled about it like a moron. All of it is a ****ing joke

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There is too much smoke not to be some fire on issues involving Paul.

Well given, if there was smoke these are all the same things they would be saying in response to that so I think it's possible.

CP3 is a constant stream of "smoke", it was a yearly saga for the Clippers. He is super opinionated and demanding, so drama follows him. To be honest, part of his gripes with Harden are probably accurate and could actually make him a better player if he absorbed CP3's message. That being said, he really has no credibility this off-season. He shot 27% from 3 and was the biggest reason the Rockets failed. Consequently there will be smoke - real or not - all summer.

After watching all this crap unfold over the last couple of weeks, it seems like the most logical explanation is some former disgruntled employee (likely a fired coach) leaking info to anyone who will listen about the inner workings of this team and the relationships among the players. The truth probably is, there has always been tension between Harden and Paul. They are two fiery competitors that want to win. The clip of Harden slapping Paul's hand away, the one of Paul looking like he is motioning to Dantoni to keep Harden resting longer, etc. All examples of two alphas trying to co-exist.

And yet in the end, you ask anyone who is still around the team about it and they ALL downplay it like it is a fabrication or embellishment of what is really going on.

D'Antoni is responsible for all of this. In the recent ESPN article it mentions that even Mike thinks he is "non-confrontational to a fault."

End of game strategy, decision on whether to ISO Harden or move the ball should all be based on Mike's leadership. It sounds like it's up to James and Chris to work it out. If you're going to have two Alphas on a roster, the coach has to be an Alpha and not super Beta like Mike.

Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

AG@RICE said:

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CP3 is a constant stream of "smoke", it was a yearly saga for the Clippers. He is super opinionated and demanding, so drama follows him. To be honest, part of his gripes with Harden are probably accurate and could actually make him a better player if he absorbed CP3's message. That being said, he really has no credibility this off-season. He shot 27% from 3 and was the biggest reason the Rockets failed. Consequently there will be smoke - real or not - all summer.

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The ONLY reason we are discussing things like the hand slap is because we haven't been able to get over the hump and beat Golden State. That is it. When Tom Brady verbally assaults his coaches and teammates on the sideline, nobody bats an eye because they win damn near every year. Competitive players have moments of outbursts with their coaches and teammates. I would rather have that than a bunch of players who don't give a s*** about anything.

Money Ag said:

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Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

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So when Paul goes on instagram and comments that all of the reports are not true, combined with him, Morey, and Tad Brown joking about all of it to the media at public events, all of that constitutes as comical? Got it.

CreedBratton said:

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Money Ag said:

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Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

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So when Paul goes on instagram and comments that all of the reports are not true, combined with him, Morey, and Tad Brown joking about all of it to the media at public events, all of that constitutes as comical? Got it.

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Are any of those people seriously supposed to come out and be like, "Yeah, things here are way out of control and suck."

Show some common sense dude.

Money Ag said:

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CreedBratton said:

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Money Ag said:

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Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

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So when Paul goes on instagram and comments that all of the reports are not true, combined with him, Morey, and Tad Brown joking about all of it to the media at public events, all of that constitutes as comical? Got it.

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Are any of those people seriously supposed to come out and be like, "Yeah, things here are way out of control and suck."

Show some common sense dude.

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Yes. Guys demand trades all the time. Look at AD last year. Chris could have easily said nothing and then We hear rumors about trade options.

It would be nice if this thread had an employee like the Texans thread to confirm or deny these things.

What's the Fish Pond Manager equivalent for the Rockets?

Money Ag said:

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CreedBratton said:

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Money Ag said:

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Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

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So when Paul goes on instagram and comments that all of the reports are not true, combined with him, Morey, and Tad Brown joking about all of it to the media at public events, all of that constitutes as comical? Got it.

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Are any of those people seriously supposed to come out and be like, "Yeah, things here are way out of control and suck."

Show some common sense dude.

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LOL

Money Ag said:

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CreedBratton said:

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Money Ag said:

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Listening to people try and say there is no truth to tension between Harden and Paul is legit comical

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So when Paul goes on instagram and comments that all of the reports are not true, combined with him, Morey, and Tad Brown joking about all of it to the media at public events, all of that constitutes as comical? Got it.

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Are any of those people seriously supposed to come out and be like, "Yeah, things here are way out of control and suck."

Show some common sense dude.

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No, they just wouldn't say anything. But instead, all parties involved (except James, but James never says anything anyways) have doubled, even tripled down on saying it's not true.

Thus, if you still don't believe them, it's because you don't want to believe them because you want things to be a mess.

dont you know you are supposed to believe un-named sources over the actual parties involved

If you want to watch the jersey reveal live....

Updated Link from Adam Wexler